Steve Braunias in axing shock
As the mainstream media catches up, a flashback to NBR's January 13 story.
As the mainstream media catches up, a flashback to NBR's January 13 story.
The popular Sunday Star-Times column by the enigmatic Steve Braunias has been axed from the pages of its Sunday magazine supplement and the departing columnist hasn't held back from hacking into his former boss.
Sunday Star-Times editor David Kemeys said Mr Braunias' last column would run on February 5 and seemed nonplussed at the high-profile departure.
“Columnists come and columnists go,” he said. Mr Kemeys was unwilling to elaborate on the reasons for Mr Braunias’ sudden exit. “That’s private between us and Steve,” he said.
”No it’s not,” said Mr Braunias.
He said Kemeys had been wanting to rid the column for some time, and that a mutually abusive email correspondence between Mr Braunias and a reader precipitated the departure.
Mr Braunias said of Mr Kemeys: “Editors come and editors go. I expect the paper will soon enough despatch the mediocre hack back to where he came from, which I understand is nowhere.”
The loss of a column is unlikely to leave the mercurial Mr Braunias with nothing to do.
In addition to regular features in North & South and Metro, he is a panellist on TV books show The Good Word, editor in residence at Wintec in Hamilton, and last year received a $35,000 grant from Copyright Licensing to publish New Zealand: The Biography.